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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 1987)
- The Battalion ' I V Vol. 82 No. 185 GSPS 045360 6 pages Co||ege Station Texas Tuesday, July 28, 1987 nstituies genetics J cinelny Tiber of ir! [ealthCns kipper takes responsibility or not defending USS Stark ie gay m u W*ASHINGTON (AP) — The said m■ )t ain an d weapons officer of the USS Stark accepted responsibility 1 1,1 Monday for the frigate’s failure to y^ars no'defend itself against an Iraqi war- e ' ),,ei1 plane and as a result, will be allowed practices t 0 le ave the service rather than face a court-martial, the Navy said. ^ x,vv tot®Thirty-seven sailors died and 21 Huni} were injured when the Stark was cc dotinBuck by two Exocet missiles from issionvedtht plane on the night of May 17 the overJ w |ii e on routine patrol in the Per- : Hn Gulf. Iraq called the attack a iser toKti m i s take, an explanation the United s expai;; States accepted. ■sentatiu* Capt. Glenn R. Brindel, the ■trk’s skipper, submitted a request to retire, the Navy said in a g it | i)G:<|,t|tement. Since he has served al- * ectlons iMist 22 years, he is eligible to re- ' 11 quest retirement with a pension, the to 1.5 jq a vy added. :) ^'’/“■Because he held the rank of cap- who stiai« n on ly since January, however — Hs than the required three years — Brindel will have to retire at the re- , diced rank of commander. Officials said this will mean a loss of more $100,000 in potential retire ment pay over his lifetime. Lt. Basil E. Moncrief, 32, of Cor- E us Christi the tactical action officer, as served only about eight years in the Navy. As a result, he submitted a letter of resignation “and will be sep arated by the Navy,” forfeiting his mander. Naval Surface Force, Atlan tic Fleet.” That means Kelso determined Gajan was less culpable than the other two officers and thus decided to delegate review of his case to a “Capt. Brindel and Lt. Moncrief admitted and ac cepted accountability for the . . . inadequacy of mea sures taken to protect Stark on May 17, 1987. ” — U.S. Navy statement naval career without any opportu nity to obtain a pension, the service said. The decisions of the two men were announced Monday shortly af ter Adm. Frank B. Kelso, the com- mander-in-chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, Va., issued letters of reprimand censuring them for their performance aboard the Stark two months ago. The Navy said the Stark’s exec utive officer, or No. 2 in command, Lt. Cmdr. Raymond J. Gajan, 35, of Rockville, Md., “has been referred (for) disciplinary action to the corn- lower level in the chain of command, officials said. The letters of reprimand were is sued after a disciplinary proceeding, known as an “aamiral’s mast,” dur ing which Kelso reviewed the cir cumstances of the May 17 attack on the Stark by an Iraqi warplane. “Both (officers) accepted respon sibility and both volunteered signifi cant personal sacrifice in acknowl edgement of accountability,” the Navy said. “Adm. Kelso, after a review of the investigation, felt that it was unlikely that any new facts would be uncov ered in a (court-martial)” and thus agreed to hold an admiral’s mast, the Navy added. Such a proceeding is one step short of a formal court-martial and can result in various disciplinary sanctions, including a suspension from duty, temporary forfeiture of pay, a letter of reprimand or a letter of admonition. Within the military legal system, a formal letter of reprimand “is a harsh penalty,” said one Navy offi cer who asked not to be identified. “For an officer, it’s the same thing as saying your career is through. You’ll never have a shot at command.” Brindel and Moncrief did not ap pear in person before Kelso, as was their right, but “each admitted re sponsibility in writing,” the Navy said. “Capt. Brindel and Lt. Moncrief admitted and accepted accountabil ity for the lack of readiness and in adequacy of measures taken to pro tect Stark on May 17, 1987,” the Navy said. “The basic charge . . . was negligence in the performance of of ficial duties.” humids vastly fotl rn half oil a toll oe| fiickenso i he appej Bentsen stresses need to ease deficit with stronger trade bill By Robert Morris Staff Writer eiter tli :ared, lathsha«B In what was billed as a “town mee- hisweei tipg,’’ Senator Lloyd Bentsen enotstt stressed the need for further effort Dr. Doui on the part of the United States to ncy root reduce the trade deficit, which he Baltimoii| called one of the toughest issues fac- i treatcl ing Congress. y. BAs head of the Senate finance v increasj committee, Bentsen is one of the rrollsaiil most powerful figures in Congress couple ( land currently is using that power to :1 tnetilgain support for a stronger trade Most of the first part of his ap- jokesm; fflearance at the Brazos Center be- J Heal:'I for , said, f of or ks it's lx j so lor.. to cope | Ire over 150 Bryan-College Station residents was spent discussing the bill’s importance. ■ “The fact is over the last six years we’ve seen our trade deficit go from billion to $166 billion,” Bentsen cloud sa ‘ ( * “WUvo seen ourselves go, in the , )on last four years, from the number one at mjdilH'editor nation in the world to the apfiqojf number one debtor nation in the irristJ fMd” , , dlle Fla I . bentsen placed the blame on a advisor); lokesiwl changing world economy. “You don’t see much free trade anymore; what you’ve seen is a re turn to protectionism,” he said. “It’s the return of mercantilism — mean- eat wa J ing governments directing trade.’ 7 Del., sail! lion bird: hen It the non-tarr mg: iff barriers U.S. bjt" |(i around the world that keep ho J products out, Bentsen said, eot it ' Those kinds of limitations we Hhve to strike down,” he said. “If you d ifrHy to buy a piece of beef in Japan, 1 mist® | ogettjj | elves f | Sen. Lloyd Bentsen you pay five times as much for it as we pay for it in the United States; rice cost six times as much.” The Japanese spend 24 percent of their disposable income on food and Americans spend 15 percent, he said. “With that kind of trade sur plus ($50 billion), you (Congress) should knock down some of those barriers.” In an effort to curtail the prob lem, Bentsen has introduced a trade bill that is co-sponsored by both Re publicans and Democrats. “It is not a situation of a Republi can economy or Democratic econ omy, or presidential economy or Photo by Tracy Staton congressional economy,” Bentsen said. “It is an American economy.” Bentsen said he did not believe Ja pan would retaliate with further measures. “I spent sixteen years building a business and one thing I learned is you never run off your best custom er,” he said. “And we’re too good customers.” Bentsen also said that the deficit must be reduced for economic ex pansion. However, he said cutting the defi cit by $70 billion, as the president suggested, would create a nervous economy that could fall into reces sion. “When you’ve got a deficit that has continued to grow and then you turn it around and cut it by $35 bil lion and set it on the right path to ward next year and the year after that, that is an adequate process,” he said. “It will be a tough one but that is what we’re going to try to do.” Bentsen opened the floor to ques tions after about 15 minutes of trade bill discussion and the forum be came a scattershot account of recent events. Questions ran the gamut of current events, ranging from eco nomic matters, largely concerning the plight of farmers, to aid to the Contras, which he supports, to tax revision, of which Bentsen said the country has had enough and instead needs stability in the tax laws. But the issue that drew the most attention was Bentsen’s possible presidential aspirations, which he did nothing to abate. When directly questioned on the subject, Bentsen never gave a yes or no answer and instead replied, “The country could do worse and proba bly will.” Later, when asked who he thought would win the presidential race in 1988, he said “There is a ru mor that I might run myself from the Senate and I’m trying to add some crediblity to that.” Regarding his stand on President Reagan’s controversial nomination of Richard Bork for the Supreme Court, Bentsen said he would re main neutral until after the confir mation hearings are completed. Educators say SAT gets too much emphasis ap up J th abo»l *“^■0 ALL AS (AP) — The Scholastic Aptitude Test, designed for use in ome. x university admissions, gets too much ng' v emphasis and doesn’t necessarily re- it Hoi f] ect academic excellence, say some college administrators, ^■“It’s gotten away from us,” Ed ward Boehm, admissions director at / Mpxas Christian University in Fort /l / Worth, said. “The public tries to use I V the test to make an assessment. Stu dents get caught up in the hype. Somehow we have to stop the cycle.” n dgre® Students are taking intensive enC ed l courses to beef up their perfor med l» mance on the SAT, used to measure I m ud, college aptitude and also a yardstick t is /ers lid vho mt': 1 i.“U h of institutions’ academic excellence. But four Eastern schools — Mid- dlebury, Bowdoin, Bates and Union College of New York — have dropped the test as an admissions re quirement. Boehm says TCU nearly dropped the SAT as a requirement for aamis- sion. But he said he believes the test has some value in predicting aca demic success and he fears dropping it could be perceived as lowering standards. “I worry that it takes a while for the public to get used to the idea of’ dropping the SAT, he said. “People think that if a college doesn’t high light scores, it must be trying to hide something: there must be some problem.” Gerhard Fonken, vice president for academic affairs at the Univer sity of Texas, agreed. He said the ed ucational system has been fascinated with quantitative ways of measuring a product. But private tutoring companies specializing in test preparation are still doing a booming business. At the Dallas branch of Stanley Kaplan, a nationwide test-prep orga nization, SAT course enrollment has increased steadily, administrator Ron Blumenthal said. A. Kenneth Pye, incoming presi dent of Southern Methodist Univer sity, said, “The problem is that there’s a strong tendency by the pub lic and the press to rate institutions by any standard they have, in this case the SAT. “This test is created for a very spe cific, narrow purpose. The informa tion it supplies is often misused.” He said he believes the test does help predict how prospective fresh men will fare, but he fears students and parents use a school’s average SAT score too broadly to determine the quality of the college itself. order officials look for Middle Eastern terrorists t ciiaint 1 ®HARLINGEN (AP) — Officials along the n g into U.S.-Mexico border are under a special alert to . Jgscec be on the lookout for a Middle Eastern hit squad reportedly out to kill a federal law enforcement j s ha r( * a fj ent > a district director for the Immigration and e ie(l | Naturalization Service said Monday. •t froiABSimilar alerts have been issued during the past ’. ul ii> . Year, said Omer Sewell, director of the INS Har- Co® lingen District covering the southern tip of Kxas. ,a V e,'si® “There were reports that there were groups coming up through Mexico intent on killing a with 'If federal law enforcement officer,” Sewell said. Silvestre Reyes, chief of the Border Patrol’s nine-county sector based in the border city of McAllen, added, “There was mention made of a connection with Islamic Jihad. Certainly, with the current situation in the Middle East and the way things have evolved in the past year or so, we’re taking it very seriously.” Federal officers at all ports of entry and throughout the district have been informed of the alert, Sewell said. “Of course, we alerted all of our officers to be careful, because I’m afraid that one of these days one of these reports, one of these alerts, is going to be a live one,” Sewell said. Officers in the area have not reported any inci dents related to the special warnings, he added. “With the last alert, we alerted our ports of en try and we went back and checked on our recent missions to see if there had been anyone ad mitted from the Far East, but we didn’t find any suspicious entry,” Sewell said. Photo by Robert W. Rizzo Putt-in’ On The Hits Dean Johnson, a senior agricultural economics major, brushes up on his putting for his beginning golf class at the Texas A&M golf course. Johnson says he really enjoys it and spends time outside of class practicing. Reagan drums up people’s support for budget policy HARTFORD, Wis. (AP) — Presi dent Reagan on Monday defended his frequent-flyer appeal for public support on federal budget and tax policies, saying he has no intention of spending his last 18 months in “a potted-plant presidency.” At the same time, Reagan, in three campaign-style stops in this Midwestern enclave of Republican Party strength, signaled he will give his so-called “economic bill of rights” a top priority during the remainder of his term. The president, who has boosted his schedule of out-of-town trips in recent months amid damaging Iran- Contra disclosures, seemed to be an swering charges by congressional Democrats that he favors getting away from Washington over nego tiating a compromise budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Following a tour of the Broan Manufacturing Co. kitchen products plant here, Reagan told an enthu siastic audience of several hundred employees: “Now, I’ve got to tell you, my deci sion to take our case to the people has gotten some of the seers and say- ers back in Washington upset. They keep telling me that I’m walking down a fruitless political path, that the people don’t care, and that I’d better let Congress conduct our fi nances. “So, to those on Capitol Hill who keep telling me, ‘Now, Mr. Presi dent, just take it easy, don’t go out there and get the people all riled up,’ I say, ‘The people have a right to be riled up.’ ” Reagan’s visit to Hartford, West Bend and Port Washington was his fourth trip in five weeks. He pre viously had taken his tax-and-spend fight to Connecticut, Florida and In diana. At a news conference in Milwau kee, Rep. Jim Moody, D-Wis., said Reagan would be remembered for creating economic disaster. “The Iran scandal will look like small potatoes in the long run com pared to the economic scandal,” Moody said. “He’s proposed the big gest out-of-balance budget in his tory. Ronald Reagan is the Babe Ruth of budget deficits.” While Reagan insisted that the na tion has turned around economically during his presidency, Moody cited the loss of 45,000 manufacuringjobs in Wisconsin alone and 3 million manufacturingjobs nationally as evi dence to the contrary. Reagan, ironically, picked up a complaint voiced during the Iran- Contra hearings to make his point “There is much left to do in the next 18 months. And to borrow a phrase heard recently, I reject a ‘potted-plant presidency.’ Tm here to do a job. ” — President Ronald Reagan that he’ll force members of Congress to pay attention to his arguments about budgets and taxes. “There is much left to do in the next 18 months,” he said. “And to borrow a phrase heard recently, I re ject a ‘potted-plant presidency.’ I’m here to do a job.” Brendan Sullivan, attorney for Lt. Col. Oliver North, told the congres sional Iran-Contra committees that his responsibility as a lawyer was to object to certain questions, not to act as “a potted plant.” Reagan was interrupted more than a half-dozen times with ap plause, particularly when he spoke of popular unrest with high federal deficits. Accepting a Broan-made fan, Reagan was told to “blow some fresh air” in the direction of the Congress. He replied, “I won’t aim it at the two sitting here,” referring to Sen. Bob Kasten and Rep. James Sensenbren- ner, both Wisconsin Republicans. Reagan, who in 6V2 years as presi dent has not submitted a balanced budget to Congress, said he wouldn’t back away from his high-profile push for fundamental changes in the way lawmakers make budget and enact tax hikes. “I would like it to be said that once of the legacies of my administration was opportunity for Americans,” he said.